Insulated gloves and mittens have been proposed which include heating means to provide comfort to the wearer under extreme frigid conditions. See, for example, the heated mittens disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,621,191. A difficulty with the prior art gloves and mittens has been that the heating means were distributed throughout the glove or mitten body so as to provide heating of the complete hand. This resulted in heating portions of the hand, such as the palm, which is relatively less sensitive to cold than other parts, such as the tips of the fingers, with the overall result that electrical energy was wasted in heating parts of the hand not requiring heat for comfort. Since batteries used to provide the electrical source were of limited capacity, such overall heating would often result in premature exhaustion of the energy of the batteries.
Further, gloves of the prior art in an attempt to provide sufficient insulation would often include excessive amounts of insulation material distributed throughout the glove body resulting in an over-size, unwieldy member which impeded movement of the wearer's hand.
It is an objective of our invention to provide for an insulated glove construction which takes into account that certain portions of the hand are more sensitive to cold than other portions, to provide effective insulation for those portions without impeding movement of the wearer's hand, and where necessary, to provide a heating means which will only heat those portions of the hand most sensitive to cold, and thus to utilize a minimum of electrical energy while still providing the necessary degree of comfort to the wearer.